Saturday, March 6, 2010

The verdict came down on Maxim Lapierre today and the NHL decided his cheap shot hit from behind on Scott Nichol the other night was worth a four-game suspension.

Considering Lapierre is a first-time offender, and also considering some of the other suspensions handed out this season, I found the punishment a little harsh. But I only thought it was a bit too severe because of all the other times the NHL has come down very lightly on players this season. Four games for that dangerous hit Lapierre laid on Nichol, when looked at in a vacuum, appears more than fair. In fact, it's probably too light.

Then I figured I should see what exactly constitutes a play worthy of such a suspension this season, so I decided to look at every play that earned the perpetrator at least a three-game vacation this season. I'll let you be the judge.

Evgeni ArtyukhinHe got three games for this slew-foot on Matt Niskanen:

Tuomo RuutuThis hit from behind on Darcy Tucker earned him three games:

Curtis Glencross

He blindsided Chris Drury, who didn't have the puck, and got three games for the effort:

Georges Laraque

The former Habs pacifist got five games for this nasty knee-on-knee hit on Niklas Kronwall:

Daniel Carcillo

The Flyers enforcer received four games - the same number as Lapierre - for this sucker punch on Matt Bradley:

Cam Janssen

A repeat offender, Janssen got five game for this hit on poor Matt Bradley, who didn't have the puck when he got nailed by the Blues enforcer:

UPDATE (1:05 p.m.) Mike Green
When I decided to do this comparison, I just knew I would forget one. Thanks to commenter Abram for pointing this out. The elbow to the head of Michael Frolik netted Green a three-game suspension.

Maxim Lapierre

Now here's Lapierre's hit on Nichol:

Now I'm not condoning what Lapierre did, not by a longshot, but when looked at in this context was his hit worse than Ruutu's on Tucker? Or was it the equivalent of Carcillo's sucker punch? I'm not sure, but to me, it looks like it's the only play among this group that was not pre-meditated. Maybe Glencross' hit on Drury is the exception there, only because it looked like Drury was about to receive a pass.

The most common sentence handed out by the league this season, by far, has been two games. Here's a little sampling of some of the acts that warranted a two-game suspension.

James Wisniewski

Hits Shane Doan with an elbow to the head:

James Neal

Hit from behind on Derek Dorsett

Patrick Kaleta

Hit from behind on Jared Ross

Alexander Ovechkin

A knee-on-knee hit on Tim Gleason

Ed Jovanovski

An elbow to the face of John Tavares

Andy Sutton

Hit from behind on Pascal Dupuis

There are three hits from behind there that warranted only a two-game suspension, and I have trouble understanding how Lapierre's hit was TWICE as bad as any of those. Or that it was worse than the three-game sentences given to Ruutu and Artyukhin above.

If only the NHL had been serious about actually disciplining its players from the very start of the season, this kind of a comparative analysis would be unnecessary. Lapierre would get, say, six games for his dirty hit and it would be consistent with the 4-8 game suspensions the NHL handed out for all these incidents.

Unfortunately, that's not the case. It just appears to me that the league has decided, all of a sudden, to stop handing out slaps on the wrist for dangerous behaviour on the ice. And Lapierre is the one being made an example of.

Thanks for the video comparison.I have to say that Chris Lee is a horrendous ref. there was a play in the game where Plekanec was face down on the ice, the San Jose Player, ripped off his helmet and proceded to knock pleky's face in to the ice three times, no call at all, not even reviewed. This league had better start being consistent or they are going to lose fans...

This just demonstrates once again how horrific the refereeing in the NHL has been this year. It really is time for the league to decide to have a professional standard for its officials. That has to start with the admission that they have a serious problem, I think the need to dismiss the referee in chief and then they need to do what several other leagues have done, which is retrain the officials over the summer. The officiating is the worst part of the game right now.

To be honest, I didn't think Lapierre did anything wrong. He was clearly trying to box Nichol out of the slot but Nichol, unfortunately, was off balance. It was merely an unfortunate coincidence but by no means a dirty hit.

When scrutinizing a violent play in hockey, you have to consider whose actions led to the injury. A truly dirty hit is dangerous regardless of what the victim does. But if a routine hockey play becomes dangerous because of the victim's actions, it is unfair to call it dirty.

Habs don't realy have to go look somewhere else to see how "neutral" referees are. Here is hit on Kostistyn http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-WBP8ijsheM after that hit Andrei was injured for 10 weeks, no penalty was given and no suspension. GJ league for you double-standrads.

I disagree with the suspension of 4 games. It was a two game suspension. I watched every single one of these hits from this year, and it makes no sense to me how Lap. comes out of this as the player who is penalized the most. You can see what he thought was happening as the puck comes back into play from off the post and Lap. is trying to take position on the puck. Defiantly a suspension was needed, but 4 games was ridiculous!

Who you're reading

I'm a freelance sports reporter working in Montreal who has covered the Habs since 2000. I used to be obsessed with the Canadiens by choice, and for free. Now I'm paid to do the same thing. It's pretty sweet.